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The Engineer 



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TO RULE THK 



Twentieth Century 



BY 



VICTOR C/ALDERSON, If^^T- 
Dean 

OF 

Armour Institute of Technology. 



{Reprijited from the Chicago Tribime, June /, igoi^ 



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Engineer to Rule the Twentieth Century. 



The twentieth century will be pre-eminently the age of the 
engineer — the man of applied science. It will be permeated 
by the scientific spirit. Historically speaking, this scientific 
spirit has long been in the minds of men, but only within the 
small reach of the latter part of the nineteenth century has 
it filtered through to the masses, influenced their daily life, and 
become an important factor in the industrial world. To realize 
what inventiveness and ingenuity — the precursors of the scien- 
tific spirit — have done, note that in 1819 the cost of ruling 100 
reams of paper by hand was $400 ; the same work can be done 
now by machinery at a cost of 85 cents. The watch that in 
1862 cost $65.41 made by hand can now be made by machinery 
for $1.10. To print 100 rolls of wall paper by hand would cost 
$42.00, but with the aid of machinery it would cost only 13 
cents. 

The next twenty-five years will show still more marvelous 
improvements, for the work of the engineer has just begun. 
Wherever new lands are to be opened, bridges built, railroads 
constructed, water or sewerage systems installed, there the civil 
engineer will be needed. Wherever in the broad field of indus- 
trial activity new machinery is to be devised, more economical 
power plants constructed, cheapened processes of manufacture 
invented, or new applications of electricity suggested, there 
jhe mechanical engineer, the chemical engineer, or the electrical 
f^ngineer will find his special field of activity. 



It is pertinent to ask, then, what kind of a man will the 
twentieth century engineer be? In the first place he will be 
a cultured man. ''By culture I mean," said Charles Dudley 
Warner, ''that fine product of opportunity and scholarship 
which is to mere knowledge what manners are to the gentle- 
man." In the future this culture will not come from a study 
of the classics, but from a familiarity with the best literature 
in the modern languages. While the education of the engineer 
must come largely from the shop and the laboratory, yet no 
error can be greater than to suppose that he can divorce him- 
self from books. Herein are the records of those experiment- 
ers who, perchance, have tried and failed ; likewise the stories 
of successes ; from both the engineer may lear^i much. Engin- 



coring literature in books, in the technical press, in the publi- 
cations of technical colleges, and in the proceedings of engineer- 
ing societies is growing apace. As neither the lawyer, the doc- 
tor, nor the minister can succeed without a well-selected 
library, so the engineer cannot hope to succeed without the aid 
of the published records of the work which other members of 
his profession have accomplished. 

The man who would pretend to succeed without the aid of 
books is the so-called practical man, the rule of thumb man. 
But he is rapidly passing away and his place is being taken by 
the technically trained man — the one who has learned from 
the shop, the laboratory, the book, the fundamental principles 
of science and their applications. The industrial ruler of the 
twentieth century will be the engineering speciaHst, who will 
add to sound general scholarship and broad scientific training 
liighly specialized knowledge in some chosen field of work. 
Re will be a practical ideahst. He will be so trained that he 
can correctly use his constructive imagination, can reason 
accurately and clearly, and through printed records can make 
use of the work of his predecessors. 



In the realm of mathematics his training will be most rigid 
and exact. He will cut loose from the idealistic, academic 
mathematics, as the student of higher literature will cut loose 
from mere grammars. His mathematics must run down 
through his fingers, as it were. Alere juggling with symbols 
will be useless to him. He must regard his mathematics as 
one of his tools, as a means to an end, or as a language in 
which to express his thoughts. The future engineer may be 
successful if his training has included a greater or less amount 
of shop practice with perhaps indifferent laboratory instruc- 
tion and a meager equipment, but no engineer can be 
l^roadly successful and thoroughly competent without a deep 
and exhaustive theoretical treatment of engineering sub- 
jects. This does away with the common opinion that litera- 
ture and books are not essential to the engineer's success, 
for the next quarter of a century will see the engineer- 
ing- profession rise to the dignity of the older professions. It 
behooves the young engineer, then, to recognize this tendency 
and to do his part towards raising the standard of his chosen 
profession. 

The relations which the engineer will bear to the great 
political and industrial changes are many and important. The 
coming era of industrial regeneration will be the result of a 
more accurate knowledge of science and a closer application 
of its principles ; the engineer will be the missionary. The 
mechanic, the trained artisan, and the technical man, not the 



farmer, will be the pioneer. The warfare of the future will be 
industrial and political, rather than military. Already we 
see the signs. The barbarous idea of depleting conquered 
lands or dependent colonies for the benefit of the conquering 
nation is yielding to the more civilized idea of internal im- 
provements, with material advantage to both parties. Be- 
cause Spain plundered her colonies and refused to advance 
with the age of science, she is no longer a factor in Western 
civilization. The world will become an industrial battlefield. 
The diplomat will become more and more a high-grade com- 
mercial agent; the military leader will be a preserver of law 
and order, rather than a destroyer of life and property; and 
the engineer will be their chief executive in adapting the forces 
of nature to the convenience of man. The great change in 
economic and industrial life of the twentieth century v/ill be 
the work of the engineer. 



The conditions which will beset the engineer of the twenti- 
eth century will be exacting beyond anything we now know. 
The importance of a strong foundation in scientific principles 
cannot be overestimated, for scientific principles are only the 
laws of nature. These principles cannot be learned readily 
after a man has begun his life work. His whole energy will 
then be devoted to applying these principles correctly, not in 
acquiring them laboriously. It will be a prime necessity for 
the technical college of the future to lay these foundations 
broad and deep. It will be regarded as a weakness for a col- 
lege to teach its students only the knacks of the profession, 
only just enough to be an ordinary draftsman, a tolerable sur- 
veyor, or first-class linesman. 

The technical graduate of the twentieth century will be 
marked by certain characteristics which are too rarely found in 
men trained in the colleges of literature and arts. Among these 
are directness of purpose, intellectual accuracy, and clear think- 
ing. The student of science and technology is trained in the 
realm of realities, where to commit error, to act without pur- 
pose, or to think vaguely are seen at once to be fruitful of 
harm. Economic and industrial needs will bring education 
from the cloistered lecture-room into the open air of the lab- 
oratory. Technical education will have a practical, helpful bear- 
ing upon the problems of life. No longer will the seclusion of 
the scholar be a mark of honor. Education will be found at 
the bench, by the forge, in the shop, the laboratory, and the 
drafting-room, as well as in the library. The lesson to be 
taught will be how to apply scientific ideas to the solution of 
problems actually arising in the struggle to bring the forces of 
nature under the sway of man. 



The tendency at the present time — one which will become 
more pronounced as the years go by — is towards a broader and 
more varied extension of the work of the engineer. Just as 
nature knows no such thing as classification — this being arbi- 
trarily arranged by the intellect of man — so nature, in yielding 
to the effects of man to subjugate her, draws no lines of demar- 
cation between mechanical, electrical, civil, or chemical engin- 
eering. These are only division Hues drawn to aid the young 
man in selecting the field in which he may make himself most 
proficient. But, when he enters upon his struggle, he may, and 
probably will, need a knowledge of each of these departments. 
Consequently the under-graduate work of the technical col- 
lege of the future will be broad and diversified. Not until the 
years of post-graduate study, or during busy professional life, 
will the pursuit of a specialty be begun. 



As technical education develops questions of far-reaching 
importance must be settled. Probably the most important will 
be the decision as to what kind of man shall guide the techni- 
cal college. In law, medical, and theological schools the law- 
yer, the doctor, and the minister, respectively, hold first place 
and have much to say both in the actual training and in the 
management of the schools. Prominent members of the pro- 
fession direct the destinies of the schools. To a much less 
extent do practicing engineers influence the technical schools. 

This condition is due to the fact that engineering schools 
are at present less professional in character than either the law, 
the medical, or the theological school. Most of them include 
cultural subjects in their curricula; they have been organized, 
in many places, in connection with state universities and have 
been subordinated to the general university plan. Frequently 
their development has been retarded by the conservative, if 
not baneful, influence of other departments. In only a few in- 
stances have the engineering colleges been granted the privi- 
lege of growing in fertile soil, adapting themselves to their 
own appropriate environment and producing such fruit as they 
were most capable of growing. 

The engineering college represents that form of scientific 
education most suitable to the exacting demands of advancing 
civilization. The particular form of education which it gives 
through shop and laboratory practice, through practical tests, 
through acquaintance with the needs of industry, must not and 
will not be retarded by the classic heirlooms of the literary col- 
lege. The engineering college must fill its own niche and 
work out its own salvation. Technical education is an educa- 
tional and not an engineering problem. 



The technical college in which the future engineer is to be 
trained has several important characteristics to maintain. First, 
to educate scientifically and technically those who shall lead 
the march of the coming civilization in industrial lines ; second, 
to educate the public to a true sense of the value of applying 
scientific principles to industrial processes ; third, as the uni- 
versity has for one of its functions the extension of human 
knowledge, in any and all lines, so the technical colleges will 
recognize that the investigation of questions relating to ap- 
plied science is within its own sphere of usefulness. Probably 
no investigation to-day would be more fruitful of good results 
to the engineering profession and to the public at large than 
the systematic study and thorough test of materials of con- 
struction. Such an investigation done on a large scale, on 
specimens of full building size, in a scientific manner, would 
save millions of dollars and put the science of construction on 
a scientific and economic basis. While the university asks 
no questions about the usefulness of the information gathered 
within its walls, the technical college must make its investiga- 
tions in fields that are distinctly useful. 

The most significant tendenc}^ which an observer of edu- 
cational progress sees to-day is that of specialization. The time 
is fast approaching when it will be recognized that merely a 
general education, whether on classical or scientific lines, is 
not alone a suitable preparation for life. Not that culture is 
less desirable than formerly, rather it is more desirable, but 
above this general substructure must be placed a technical 
education which will give that special application to some call- 
ing which the coming age will demand. Colleges which devote 
their attention solely to general cultural training will become 
of less importance. The institutions now known by various 
titles as technical colleges, institutes of technology, and poly- 
technic institutes, are the colleges of the twentieth century 
which will do most for their students, which will be in closest 
touch with the needs of civilization, which will provide at once 
the most cultural, the most rational, and the most scientific 
instruction. These institutions, by whatsoever name desig- 
nated, will be the important colleges of the future, because 
they will give that perfect unity of thought and action, that 
harmony of theory and practice, which the educational needs 
of the future demand. 



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